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Horace Greeley decently Dissected, 



LETTER 0^ HORACE GREELEY, 



V 



Aj ADDRESSED BY 

A\ OAKET HALL 



li 

Av ..v\*'''~'^ JOSEPH HOXIE, Esq., 

REPUBLISHED (WITH AN ALPHABET OF NOTES) BY POPULAR REQUEST. 

"SELF-GOVERNMENT. 

" WE HAVE REPEATEDLY SAID, and WE ONCE ilOKE INSIST, that the great principle emboddsd 
BY Jefferson i\ the Declakation of American Indkpendexce, that governments derfve their just 

POWER FROM THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED, IS SOUND AND JUST ; AND THAT, IF THE SLAVE STATES, 

THE COTTOX STATES, OR THE GULF STATES ONLY, CHOOSE TO FOR.M AN IXKEPENDENT 
NATION, THEY HAVE A CU^AR MORAL RIGHT TO DO SO. We have never s.ud, nur inti- 
mated, THAT THIS IS A RIGHT TO BE CLAIMED IN A FREAK OR A PET, AND EXERCISED WlTlI THE 
LEVITT OF A BEAU CHOOSING HIS PARTNER FOR A DANCE. WE DO NOT BELIEVE — WE HAVE NEVER 
MAINTAINED — THAT A STATE MIGHT BREAK OUT OF THE UNION LIIiE A BULL FROM A PASTURE — 

TH.\T ONE State, or ten States, might take themselves off in a huff — much less 

MAKE A feint OF GOING, IN ORDER TO BE BRIBED TO STAY ; BUT WE HAVE SAID, AND STILL 

maintain, that, PROVIDED THE COTTON . STATfS HAVE FULLY' AND DEFINITI\ELY MADE 

UP THEIR MINDS TO GO BY THEMSELVES, THERE IS NO NEED OF FKiHTING 

ABOUT IT ; for they have only to exercise reasonable pahence, and they 

WILL BE LET OFF IN PE,iCE AND GOOD WILL. WHENEVER IT SHALL BE 

CLEAR THAT THE GREAT BODY OF THE SOUTHERN PEOPLE HAVE 
BECf)ME CONCLUSrV^ELY ALIENATED FROM THE UNION, AND 
ANXIOUS TO ESCAPE FROM IT, WE WILL DO OUR BEST TO FOR- 
WARD THEIR VIEWS."— Horace Greeley, Tribune, Ftb. 23,1861. 



NEW YORK: 

ROSS & TOUSEY, No. 121 NASSAU STREET, 

General Agents for Publishers, Newsdealers, and Booksellers. 
1862. 






WVNKOOP, HALLENBECK & THOMAS, Pkixtkrs, 
No. 113 Fulton Stbket, New Yokk. 



INDEX TO THE ALPHABET OF NOTES. 



Note ff. the "casus belli" ...... 

b. THE difference BETWEEN "MY BULL AND YOUR OX " 
C. HOW HORACE GREELEY DEMOLISHES POLITICAL FOES 

d. HORACE Greeley's famous confession to "pater" seward 

e. AN application from PECKSNIFF .... 
/. " SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS" DEFINED .... 
g. THE ANCIENT AND MODERN NARCISSUS 
h. THE FIELD AGAINST THE FAVORITE .... 

i. A QUOTATION WHICH MUST BE READ TO BE APPRECIATED 

J. THE HON. JOHN B. HASKIN AND HORACE GREELEY 

k. CHIEF JUSTICE TANEY AND HORACE GREELEY 

I. EDWIN FORREST AND HORACE GREELEY 

m. JUDGE DALY AND HORACE GREELEY . 
n. HARPER BROTHERS AND HORACE GREELEY 
O. EDWARD EVERETT AND HORACE GREELEY 

! RETRACTIONS AND MAGNANIMITY VS. HORACE 
ARCHBISHOP HUGHES AND HORACE GREELEY 
REV. WM. ADAMS, D. D., AND HORACE GREELEY t 

q. HORACE GREELEY IN THE LOBBY 

HORACE GRRELEY AND THE MONEY QUESTION 
HORACE GREELEY AND THE MOTIVES OF MONEYED MEN 

S. FAC-SIMILE OF THE NATION'S WAR-CRY 
t. HORACE GREELEY 7lot THE TRIBUNE 

u. HORACE Greeley's epitaph, written by himself 

V. A blasphemous editorial, especially COMMENDED TO CLERICAL ADMIRERS 

to. HORACE GREELEY HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR HIS SHARE OF THE WAR 

X. HALF A DOZEN TREASONABLE EDITORIALS 

y. WHAT IS A COMMON-LAW NUISANCE 

Z. THE EXTRACTS FROM THE NEWSPAPER FILES VINDICATED 



GREELEY 



'■) 



PAGE 

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37 
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PREFATORY 



The letter which forms the basis of tliis hroclmre was pub- 
lished in the Leader of December 14, 1860 ; and subsequently 
was copied by the Herald, January 4, 1861, accompanied with 
an illustrative, piquant, and characteristic editorial. 

The writer has been warned by many of his own friends, 
and by some of Horace Greeley's admirers, against the folly of 
provoking so powerful a newspaper editor. To the former, the 
writer has replied that there is a scriptural history about a 
shepherd boy, and a taunting, bragging, powerful giant ; and 
that even pebbles, ?y well chosen, and ?/ well aimed, can do 
execution against a Goliah. To the latter class, the writer has 
answered, that although sensible, that like not a few other 
political, legal, and literary hacks, the writer resides in a three- 
story glass house ; yet the question is not and cannot become 
one concerning the obscure individual and his demerits, but 
remains about the Editor and public man, who, seeking to lead 
public sentiment, is amenable to its judgment. It is a naked 
question of exposing to history and posterity, for the good of 
real morality, a crying public abuse which existed in the past. 
This obscure hroclmre may be read and forgotten this year ; but 
placed, as it will be, in every public library in the land, will, in 
many years to come, serve the same universal good which the 
once obscure and trembling letter-writers of the Cromwellian or 



VI. P R K F A C E . 



Dantoniaii revolutions have served, in quietly noting for pos- 
terity the hypocrisies, vanities, and frivolities of some demi-god 
of a fanatical mob ; and in demonstrating that the patriotism of 
this demi-god was only a thin cloak that time rotted away. 

The succeeding pages are believed to be entirely free from 
even a remote reference to any personal controversy between 
writer and subject. They are intended to be relieved from 
undignified allusions. 

The pebbles may not be well chosen, and may not be well 
aimed. But they take their slender chances against the edito- 
rial giant, with his peculiar followers, of whom may be said 
(as was sung of those of Alp, the renegade, in Byron's Siege 
of Corinth) : 

" They crouched to him, for he had skill 
To warp and wield the public will." 



LETTER, WITH NOTES. 



My dear Hoxie : — Among the editorials in The Tribune of the 
day succeeding the Mayoralty election, were conspicuously printed 
the words " Poor Joe !" (a) 

They undoubtedly ' made the unskillful laugh ;' hut they also 
'made the judicious grieve ;' and (as Hamlet continues) 'the cen- 
sure of the which one must in your allowance outweigh a whole 
theatre of others.' 

You had exercised your right of suffrage as a private citizen, 
by voting for a much respected and personal friend. Upon several 
days previously, you had, as a private citizen, also exercised your 
choice of electioneering. It happening that the vote and elec- 
tioneering were not in accordance with the views of Horace Greeley, 
and your candidate being defeated, you were selected by him, from 
among the seventy-five thousand electors, to be (according to a phrase 
in Alexander Hamilton's celebrated libel definition) 'held up to pub- 
lic ridicule.' Just as effectually so by the intention of those two 
words, as if a column had been used by Horace Greeley's pen, which 
seems to boast to itself an editorial reign of terror over judges, 
prosecutors and jurymen ; and therefore laughs to scorn the conse- 
quences of libel at which, under similar circumstances, a poor coun- 
try editor might justly tremble. (&) 

Note (a). These words were inserted among the editorial rejoicings over the 
election of the Tribune candidate. They were unattended hy any other sentence, 
and formed a single paragraph. Consequently the one upon which a reader's eye 
most readily centred in opening the paper. 

Note {h). Mr. Joseph Hoxie had known C. Godfrey Gunther, Esq. [the candidate 
of one of the Union, as well as Tammany and German League, candidates for 
Mayor], from the latter's boyhood. Horace Greeley sought to force him in Decem- 
ber into a party support ; although in November Horace Greeley had openly bolted 
two party candidates. Mr. Hoxie doubtless remembered the following editorial of 
Horace Greeley. [The animus of 1861 and of 1858 are particularly worthy of juxta- 



When the paper containing the words was shown to me, I was 
instantly reminded of a conversation between us during our recent 
joint canvass. You jokingly alluded to Horace Greeley's attacks 
upon several candidates (who had at various times thwarted Horace 
Greeley's ambitions or political interests). I think my words were : 
"Your time will also come, Hoxie, for you are not forgiven the 
small amount of time and money you expended last February, at 
Albany, in doing for Horace Greeley as a candidate for U. S. 
Senator, (c) that which was only criminal when against him or his 

position. The New York public can be as independent as they please when Horace 
Greeley has no pet candidate ; but wlien he has, then cracks his idiosyncratic whip :] 

' ' One thing has been settled by the experience of the last twenty years, and that 
is the moral impossibility of good Municipal rule under the sway of any political 
party. Either the citizens who mainly pay the taxes must come together and re- 
solve to unite, without distinction of party, in the support of honest, capable men 
for responsible places in the municipality, or they must submit to be ruled by 
peculators and sharpers leagued with miscreants and rufifians. There is just this 
choice open to them. True, we might urge that none of the great cities, Chicago 
alone excepted, have yet been ruled by the Republicans as a party ; and that they 
ought to be tried before party municipal government is decisivelypronounced a fail- 
ure ; but it is wiser to rest on the abimdant experience afforded by the failures of all 
other parties. Years ago, we were satisfied that no party which had a President to 
support or to elect could ever govern a great city wisely, efficiently, or economi- 
cally. We have for the last four or five years supported and opposed candidates for Municipal 
stations regardless of their politics, and mean to do so evermore. 

' ' Our City now holds her Municipal separate from our State and National elec- 
tions ; so do all, or nearly all, other great cities. Let the divorce of Municipal affairs 
from Politics be made absolute and universal, and we may hope henceforth to avoid the 
reign of Vigilance. Committees on the one hand, and of Ballot-box Stuffers on the 
other. ' ' 

This editorial from the Tribune of June 8, 1858, was a complete justification of the 
course of Mr. Hoxie (a Republican), supporting Mr. Gunther (a Democrat), and a 
valued friend. 



Note (c). It is interesting to the student of human motive to study Horace Gree- 
ley's files from February, 1861— the date of the New York Senatorial election, when 
Horace Greeley was defeated — in order to see how those who then voted, or those who 
lobbied against his asph-ations have been guillotined in his Spruce street sanctum. 
Comptroller Haws (one of the most scrupulously industrious, honest, and high-mind- 
ed men of the land) was always spoken of by Horace Greeley as he deserved, down 
to the time of the fatal ( ? ) visit to Albany, against the Senatorial aspirant. The 



9 

favorite men — ' lobbying.' " You dissented, and thoug'ht Horace 
Greeley would never tread upon the friendships and other favors of 
twenty years, to indulge in a libel upon you. 

reader will find among Horace Greeley's files, since that time, many references to 
a Haws-ian fall from grace, that, however, no one else but Horace Greeley has 
noticed. Mr. Washington Smith, ex-Governor of the Aims-House, &c. , &c., just 
before the Senatorial election, gave a supper party (being one of the Presidential 
electors), at which was present William M. Evarts, Esq. — the Senatorial candi- 
date who withdrew in favor of Ira Harris (the balance-of-power candidate), and 
elected him — and at which supper was not present Horace Greeley. Mr. Evarts 
made a pleasant speech, and was toasted by Washington Smith as the next U. S. 
Senator. Last November, Washington Smith was nominated regularly by the 
Republican party for the State Senate. But Horace Greeley, ' didn' t see it. ' A Union 
Eepublican was started by Horace Greeley, and Washington Smith was not elected. 
In the summer of 1861, William M. Evarts, Esq., delivered an agricultural address 
in the interior of New York State. All other editors praised it, but the'correspondent 
of Horace Greeley averred that it was too long, and was not in any sense an agri- 
cultural address! Doubtless other coincidences will occur to readers, and which 
to mention space forbids. 

Note {d). This remarkable epistle is as- follows — the italics being of the writer : 

New Yokk, Saturday eve., Nov. 11, 1854. 
Gov. Seward : The Election is over, and its results sufficiently ascertained. It 
seems to me a fitting time to announce to you the dissolution of the i)olitical firm 
of Seward, Weed and Greeley, by the withdrawal of the junior partner — said with- 
drawal to take effect on the morning after the first Tuesday in February next. 
And, as it may seem a great presumption in me to assume that any such firm exists, 
especially since the public was advised, rather more than a year ago, by an Edi- 
torial rescript in the Evening Journal, formally reading me out of the Whig party, 
that I was esteemed no longer either useful or ornamental in the concern, you will, 
I am sure, indulge me in some reminiscences which seem to befit the occasion. 

I was a poor young printer, and editor of a Literary Journal — a very active and 
BITTER Whig in a small way, but not seeking to be known out of my own Ward 
Committee — when, after the great political revulsion of 1837, I was one day called 
to the City Hotel, where two strangers introduced themselves as Thurlow Weed and 
Lewis Benedict, of Albany. They told me that a cheap Campaign Paper of a pe- 
culiar stamp at Albany had been resolved on, and that I had been selected to edit 
it. The announcement might well be deemed flattering by one who had never 
even sought the notice of the great, and who was not known as a partisan writer, 
and I eagerly embraced their proposals. They asked me to fix my salary for the 
year ; I named $1,000, which they agreed to ; and I did the work required to the 
best of my ability. It was work that made no figure and created no sensation ; 
but I loved it and did it well. When it was done, you were Governor, dispensing 



10 

But the younger prophet, my dear Hoxie, proves most correct. 
Those friendships were wiped from Horace Greeley's newspaper 
slate as remorselessly as a Thug throttles his traveling companion. 

(Let me chronicle an honorable difference. A playful allusion 
to your candidate's defeat appeared in Tlie Evening Pod of the same 

offices worth $3,000 to $20,000 per year to your friends and compatriots, and I re- 
turned to my garret and my crust, and my desperate battle with pecuniary obliga- 
tions heaped upon me by bad partners in business and the disastrous events of 
1837. I believe it did not then occur to me that some of these abundant places might have been 
offered to me without injustice ; I now think it should have occurred to you. If it did 
occur to me, I was not the man to ask you for it ; I think that should not have 
been necessary. I only remember that no friend at Albany inquired as to my 
pecuniary circumstances ; that your friend (but not mine), Egbert C. Wetmore, was 
one of the chief dispensers of your patronage here ; and that such devoted com- 
patriots as \ H. Wells and John Hooks were lifted by you out of pauperism into 
independence, as I am glad I was not ; and yet an inquiry from you as to my needs 
and means at that time would have been timely, and held ever in grateful remem- 
brance. 

In the Harrison campaign of 1840, I was again designated to edit a campaign 
paper. I published it as well, and ought to have made something by it, in spite of 
its extremely low price ; my extreme poverty was the main reason why I did not . 
It compelled me to hire press-work, mailing, &c., done by the job, and high charges 
for extra work nearly ate me up. At the close, I was still without property and in 
debt, but this paper had rather improved my position. 

Now came the great scramble of the swell mob of coon minstrels and cider 
suckers at Washington — / 7iot being counted in. Several regiments of them went on 
from this city ; but no one of the whole crowd^though I say it who should not — 
had done so much toward Gen. Harrison's nomination and election as yours re- 
spectfully. Tasked nothing, expected nothing ; but you, Gov. Seward, ought to have asked 
that I he POSTMASTER OF NEW YORK. Your asking would have been in vain ; 
but it would have been an act of grace neither wasted nor undeserved. 

I soon after started The Tribune, because I was urged to do so by certain of 
your friends, and because such a paper was needed here. I was promised certain 
pecuniary aid in so doing ; it might have been given me without cost or risk to 
any one. All I ever had was a loan by ijiecemeal of $1,000, from James Cogge- 
shall. God bless his honored memory ! I did not ask for this, and I think it is the 
one sole case in which I ever received a pecuniary favor from a political associate. 
I am very thankful that he did not die till it was fully repaid. 

And let me here honor one grateful recollection. When the Whig party under 
your rule had offices to give, my name was never thought of ; but when, in '42-3, we 
were hopelessly out of power, I was honored with the nomination for State Printer. 
When we came again to have a State Printer to elect as well as nominate, the place 
went to Weed, as it ought. Yet it was worth something to know that there was 



1.1 

day. That paper being edited by a poet and a critic — men who cher- 
ish gentlemanly instincts, and are sought after in social life, from 
which clodhoppers are excluded — apologized, the next evening, for 
the allusion to yourself, and in a manner so happy and eulogistic, 
that I dare say you did not regret the original article. But no re- 

once a time when it was not deemed too great a sacrifice to recognize me as belong- 
ing to your household. If a new office had not since been erected on purpose to give its 
valuable patronage to H. J. Eaymond, and enable St. John to show forth his Times, as 
the organ of the Whig State Administration, I should have been still more grateful. 

In 1848 your star again rose, and my warmest hopes were realized in your 
election to the Senate . I was no longer needy, and had no more claim than desire 
to be recognized by Gen. Taylor. I think I had some claim to forbearance from 
you. What I received thereupon was a most humiliating lecture in the shape of 
a decision in the libel case of Eedfield and Pringle, and an obligation to publish 
it in my own and the other journal of our supposed firm. I thought, and still 
think, this lecture needlessly cruel and mortifying. The plaintiffs, after using 
my columns to the extent of their needs or desires, stopped writing and called on 
me for the name of their assailant. I proffered it to them — a thoroughly responsi- 
ble name. They refused to accept it, unless it should prove to be one of the four 
or five first men in Batavia ! — when they had known from the first who it was, and 
that it was neither of them. They would not accept that which they had 
demanded ; they sued me instead for money, and money you were at liberty to 
give to them to their heart's content. I do not think you were at liberty to humiliate 
me in the eyes of my own and your'" public as you did. I think you exalted your 
own judicial sternness and fearlessness unduly at my expense. I think you had a 
better occasion for the display of these qualities when Webb threw himself entirely 
upon you for a pardon which he had done all a man could do to demerit. (His 
paper is paying you for it now.) 

I have publicly set forth my view of your and our duty with respect to Fusion, 
Nebraska and party designations. I will not repeat any of that. I have referred 
also to Weed's reading me out of the Whig party — my crime being, in this as in 
some other things, that of doing to-day what more politic persons will not be ready 
to do till to-morrow. 

Let me speak of the late canvass. 1 was once sent to Congress for ninety days, 
merely to enable Jim Brooks to secure a seat therein for four years. I think I never hinted to 
any human being that Itoould have liked to be put forward for any place. But James W. 
WiiiTEf (you hardly know how good and true a man he is) started my name for 
Congress, and Brooks' packed delegation thought I could help him through ; so I 

* If I am not mistaken, this judgment is the only speech, letter or document addressed to the 
public in which you ever recognized my existence. I hope I may not go down to posterity as 
embalmed therein. 

f (Note by the writer.) Now Judge Superior Court, and every way worthy of this allusion. 



12 



gret has been expressed by Horace Greeley for the insult to his old 
friend, and to the daughters, sous, and family associates of that old 
friend !) 

But to even such a cloud there is a silver lining. The two 
words of insult to you have done much more to enlighten the pecu- 
liar admirers of Horace Greeley, as to his editorial vindictiveness and 

was put on behind him. But this last Spring, after the Nebraska question had 
created a new state of things at the North, one or two personal friends, of no politi- 
cal consideration, suggested my name as a candidate for Governor, and I did not 
discourage Ihem. Soon, the persons who were afterward mainly instrumental in 
nominating Cl.'vrk came about me, and asked if I could secure the Know Nothing 
vote. I told them I neither could nor would touch it ; on the contrary, I loathed 
and repelled it. Thereupon they turned upon Cl.\kk. 

I said nothing, did nothing. A hundred people asked me who should be run 
for Governor. I sometimes indicated Patterson ; I never hinted at my own name. 
But by-and-by Weed came down, and called me to him, to tell me why he could 
not support me for Governor. (I had never asked nor counted on his support.) 

I am sure Weed did not mean to humiliate me ; hut he did it. The upshot of 
his discour.5e (very cautiously stated) was this : If I were a candidate for Governor, 
I should beat not myself only, but you. Perhaps that was true. But as I had in 
no manner solicited his or your support, I thought this might have been said to 
my friends rather than to me. I suspect it is true that I could not have been 
elected Governor as a Whig. But had he and you been favorable, there would 
have been a party in the State ere this which could and would have elected me to 
any post, without injuring itself or endangering your re-election. 

It was in vain that I urged that I had in no manner asked a nomination. At 
length /was nettled by his language — well intended, but very cutting as addressed 
by him to me — to say, in substance, " Well, then, make Patterson Governor, and try 
my name for Lieutenant. To lose this place is a matter of no importance ; and we can 
see whether I am really so odious." 

I should have hated to serve as Lieutenant-Governor, but I should have gloried 
in running for the post. I want to have my enemies all iipon me at once ; I am 
tired of fighting them piecemeal. And, though I should have been beaten in the 
canvass, I know that my running would have helped the ticket, AND HELPED 
MY PAPER. 

It was thought best to let the matter take another course. No other name 
could have been put on the ticket so bitterly humbling to me as that which was 
selected. The nomination was given to Raymond ; the fight left to me. And Gov. 
Seward, I have made it, though it be conceited in me to say so. What little fight 
there has been, I have stirred up. Even Weed has not been (I speak of his paper) 
hearty in this contest, while the journal of the Whig Lieut. -Governor has taken 
care of its ov^n interests, and let the canvass take care of itself, as it early declared 



13 



political hypocrisy, than did even his celebrated epistle to Senator 
Seward, in which he deprecated his loss of a nomination for Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, because it also lost him an occasion "to help my 
paper !"{d) 

it would do. That journal has (because of its milk-and-water course) some twenty 
thousand subscribers in this city and its suburbs, and of these twenty thousand, I 
venture to say more voted for Ullmann and Scroggs, than for Clark and Raymond ; 
the Tribune (also because of its character) has but eight thousand subscribers with- 
in the same radius, and I venture to say that of its habitual readers, nine-tenths 
voted for Clark and Raymond — very few for Ullmann and Scroggs. I had to bear 
the brunt of the contest, and take a terrible responsil)ility in order to prevent 
the Whigs uniting upon James W. Barker, to defeat Fernando Wood.--- Had 
Barker been elected here, neither you nor I could walk these streets without being 
hooted, and Know-Nothingism would have swept like a prairie-fire. I stopped 
Barker's election at the cost of incurring the deadliest enmity of the defeated 
gang ; and I have been rebuked for it by the Lieut. -Governor's paper. At the 
critical moment, he came out against John Wueeler, in favor of Charles H. Mar- 
shall (who would have been your deadliest enemy in the House), and even your 
Col. -General's paper, which was even with me in insisting that Wheeler should be 
returned, wheeled about, at the last moment, and went in for Marshall — the 
Tribune alone clinging to Wheeler to the last. I rejoice that they who turned so 
suddenly were not able to turn all their readers. 

Gov. Seward, I know that some of your most cherished friends think me a great 
obstacle to your advancement^that John Schoolcraft, for one, insists that you 
and Weed should not be identified with me. I trust, after a time, you will not be. 
I trust I shall never be found in opposition to you ; I have no farther wish than to 
glide out of the newspaper world as quietly and as speedily as possible, join my 
family in Europe, and if possible stay there quite a time — long enough to cool my 
fevered brain and renovate my overtasked energies. All I ask is that we shall be 
counted even on the morning after the first Tuesday in February, as aforesaid, and 
that I may thereafter take such course as seems best, without reference to the 
past. 

You have done me acts of valued kindness in the line of yoiir j)rofession : let 
me close with the assurance that these will ever be gratefullyf remembered by 

Yours, 

HORACE GREELEY. 
Hon. Wm. H. Seward, Present. 

* (Note by the writer.) Here, in 1854, he admits aiding the election of Mr. Wood — but ever 
afterward any person suspected of such an endeavor, has been most wantonly assailed by Horace 
Greeley. — See Tribune flies, passim. 

■j- Quere by present writer — Chicago 1 



14 



Even Tom Pinch found out Pecksniff at last, and the few remain- 
ing idolators of Horace Greeley can read to advantage how it was 
that Tom discovered his deity to be a false one, if they will ponder 
over the thirty-first chapter of " Martin Chuzzlewit." (e) 

Permit me to give you my explanation of why Horace Greeley 
thus singled you out for his ridicule from among *I5,000 electors. 
It was because you had offended his self-gonsciousness. (/) 

Note (e). As one by one these idolators make some discovery which shakes their 
faith, they feel as Dickens thus describes : " And now the full agitation and misery 
of the disclosure came rushing upon Tom indeed. The star of his whole life from 
boyhood had become, in a moment, putrid vapor. It was not that Pecksniff — Tom's 
Pecksniff — had ceased to exist, but that he never had existed. In his death, Tom 
would have had the comfort of remembering what he used to be, but in this dis- 
covery he had the anguish of recollecting what he never was. For as Tom's blind- 
ness in tliis matter had been total and not partial, so was his restored sight. His 
Pecksniff could never have worked the wickedness of which he had just now heard, 
but any other Pecksniff' could ; and the Pecksniff who could do that, could do any- 
thing, and no doubt had been doing anything and everything, except the right 
thing, all through his career. From the lofty height on which poor Tom had 
placed his idol, it was tumbled down headlong, and 

' Not all the king'.s horses, nor all the king's men. 
Could have set Mr. Pecksuiflf up again. ' 

Legions of Titans couldn't have got him out of the mud." 

Then it will be remembered that Pecksniff, listening unseen to the stunning 
soliloquy which followed from Tom Pinch, came to the conclusion to be beforehand, 
and publicly throw Pinch overboard. Just as Horace Greeley has thrown Webster, 
Seward, Campbell, Hunt, Weed, Raymond, McElrath, &c., &c., overboard, at the 
precise moment when they had severally turned him out of the gentlemen's cabin. 
And thus it was Pecksniff did it : 

"I am glad he's gone," said old Martin Chuzzlewit, drawing a long breath, 
when Tom had left the room. ' ' It is a relief, ' ' assented Mr. Pecksniff. " It is a great 
relief. But having discharged — / hope, with tolerable firmness — the duty which I owed to so- 
ciety, I will now, my dear sir, if you will give me leave, retire to shed a few tears 
in the back garden, as an humble individual." 

Note (/). "Self-consciousness" — 'consciousness within one's self.' — Webster 
Diet. Used by Locke. Or a perpetual consciousness of one's self, sleeping or waking, 
above, beyond, and over every other object of perception and sensation. It is the 
very opposite of what is thus described by a writer in the February Continental Maga- 
zine: " The process described so philosophically by Coleridge, to lose ' self in an idea 
dearer than self,' is the condition of all greatness. It sublimated the life of Wash- 



15 



Horace Greeley is a man of strong will and vigorous thought. 
He is a rapid thinker, and a lieadlong- writer. He possesses native 
genius ; but it has contracted two chronic mental diseases, that 
increase in "illness" with his years. One is a morbid self-con- 
sciousness — worse than that of Narcissus (g) (whom, in justice to 
the world, the gods speedily sent to Hades). The other disease is 
a villager's fondness for hearing and retailing gossip, conjoined 
with a proneness to intermeddling ! Instead of being obliged (as 
all mortals similarly afflicted are obliged) to run out and exercise his 
self-consciousness from pillar to post, or to pick up and repeat his gos- 
sip, and enact his intermeddling around the world, Horace Greeley has 
a newspaper, which is his g'lass to reflect self-consciousness in — his 
viaduct of gossip and his engine of intermeddling. 

This extraordinary self- consciousness destroys his fidelity to friends, 
his magnanimity to enemies, his devotion to country, and his regard for 
social tranquillity. 

For a long time it was skillfully concealed by a claim of public 
spirit. But what is it 'Sir William Draper, in his second letter to 
Junius, said ? " Disappoirted ambition, resentment for defeated 
hopes, and desire of revenge, assume but too often the appearance 
of public spirit." 

When Horace Greeley edited Tlie New Yorker, this self con- 
sciousness was germinating. But when Diogenes (as I once heard 
you remark on the stump) gets out of the tub, he is generally a dif- 

ington, and made it unique in the annals of nations ; it enabled Shakspeare to in- 
carnate the elements of humanity in dramatic creations, and Kean to reproduce 
them on tlie stage ; it is the grand law of the highest achievements in statesman- 
ship, in letters, and in art ; without which they fall short of wide significance and 
enduring vitality." 

Note {g). A friendly critic asks: "Why 'lug in' Narcissus? he has nothing to 
do with it !" Let us refer to the story then. Narcissus was the son of Lyrope, a 
nymph of the ocean. The nymphs of the mountains beheld him with admiration. 
Beauteous Echo fell in love with him. He treated them and her with scorn and 
contempt. The goddess Rhamnusia granted their prayer that he should, for pun- 
ishment, continually desire what he should never be able to obtain. Narcissus, 
happening to look into the smooth and transparent water of a fountain, became 
enamored of his own beautiful person. Day by day he returned to the fountain to 
behold the object of his admiration. He looked and loved incessantly. Sometimes 



16 



ferent philosopher from the one who was under the bunghole ! The 
self-consciousness was only developed when the business sagacity 
of Thomas McElrath had furnished breeze and string- for the Horace 
Greeley kite, and The Tribune soared into the lower clouds of popular 
favor, and invited men's attention. Mr. McElrath being modest, 
and Horace Grreeley otherwise, that attention centred on the latter. 
Diogenes then emerged from his tub ! And his editorials began to 
be, what they have always continued to be, conceived in the words 
of Grratiano, " I am Sir Oracle, and when I ope my lips let no dog 
bark." 

Soon fancying the results of his self-consciousness to be as 
palatable to the public as they were to himself, he attempted to 
make a republic of Horace Greeleys, peopled by his readers. It 
was not a fashion of diet or of dress he would set (as lower-order 
mortals did) but one of morals and politics. Horace Greeley en- 
deavored to construct with his editorial pen a republic of Phalanxers 
and free-lovers, amateur farmers and strong-minded women. But 
the shrewd hand of Thomas McElrath pulled the curb, and the " H. G." 

he attempted to kiss the beauteous figure, but only drenched his nostrils. Some- 
times he plunged into the water — always disappointed. Wearied, at length, with 
grief and disappointment, he abandoned himself to despair, and the gods sent him 
to Hades. The shades in the region of Pluto were often surprised by the ghost of 
Narcissus bending over the gloomy waters of the Styx, searching for the earthly 
idol. 

In an apartment adjoining the Sala degli Animali, in the Museo Pio Clemen tino, 
at Rome, among the fine collection of statues is one of Narcissus. Of this figure 
Sir J. L. Smith observes : " He has a very foolish face, which, perhaps, he ought." 

Here is a Narcissus reflection from the Washington fountain. In the Tribune of 
January 4, 1861, appears this tel&jram conspicuously among the war news : 

"MR. Greeley's lecture. 
" Horace Greeley delivered a lecture to-night before a dense auditory at the Smith- 
sonian Institution, his subject being 'The Nation.' He said the misfortune of 
our country had been its reluctance to meet its antagonist in the eye. Slavery is 
the aggressor, and has earned a rebel's doom. Save the Union, and let Slavery 
take its chance. He was against compromise, because it implied concession to 
armed treason ; and expressed his belief, that the present contest would result in 
enduring benefits to the cause of human freedom. President Lincoln, Secretary Chase, 
and several Senators and Representatives were on the pla{form. THE LECTURER WAS 
FREQUENTLY APPLAUDED." 

The italics are the writer's. Was the telegram written and paid for by some 
mountain nymph or ' Echo ' ? 



17 



steed ambled off into the race-course of personal politics. It entered 
for the Epsom cup (which turned out full of Epsom salts) of Congress- 
ships, and Gubernatorial, Senatorial and Ambassadorial dignities. 
There was erected a grand stand for those who betted upon each 
aspiration. They who took the field against the favorite, were placed 
behind the ropes and pummeled, or detained over night in Greeley- 
ian cells ! (h) 

Public questions and private quarrels were treated of in Horace 
Greeley's editorials in a manner best calculated to make them sub- 
sidary to the triumphs of this self-consciousness. The editorials 
admitted no possibility of error, and were without qualification of 
fact or doubt of logic. There were no " peradventures," nor " if-we- 
are-not-mistakens." They were of the Sir Oracle, dogmatic, asser- 
tional school of rhetoric, (i) 

Did a Congressman voyage counter to H. G. breezes — " Off 
with his head, so much for Buckingham !" was heard from be- 
hind the scenes, (j) Did the Chief Justice of a State or of the 

Note (h). Again refer to the letter to Seward, and this allusion will be more 
understood. 

Note (/). " With purpose to be dressed in an opinion 
Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit." 

Gratiano — Merchant of Venice. 

Note {j). A rural neighbor of Horace Greeley, and his friend — the Hon. John 
B. Haskin, M. C. — was thus (Jan. 8th, 1858, Tribune) treated for running coun- 
ter, &c. : " Mr. Haskin, of the Westchester District, in this State, in the debate in 
the House on Wednesday, at Washington, very boldly condemned the fiUibustering 
of Walker, but more boldly declared in favor of fiUibustering on a large scale. Mr. 
Haskin, according to our telegraphic report, despises the petit larceny of individuals, 
but glories in the ' grand larceny of nations ;' and accordingly he is for stealing 
Cuba by all the power of the Government. Mr. Haskin's private morals are of no 
public consequence whatever ; but we recommend him to observe some degree of 
reticence in his public utterances. It is of no service to anybody to boast of vil- 
lainy ; and the man who does it not only discloses his want of virtue, but his want 
of sense. A knave in disguise is offensive enough, but a confessing knave is worse. 
We recognize a lurking sense of decency in hypocritical professions of goodness, but 
toward blatant rascality there can be no sentiments but those of disgust. Mr. Has- 
' kin will find himself unable to get on in the course he has cliosen. We recom- 
mend him to the confessional. Let him come out and admit that he has made a 
fool of himself, and begin again." 
2 



18 



United States think differently from the H. G. groove of thought — 
presto ! he was editorially written down an ass. (k) And as self- 
consciousness is a contagious disease, it extended to many of 
Horace Greeley's staff. Did an actor nod coldly to a certain 
theatrical critic — up went the ink-bottle at the actor's whole reper- 
toire. (I) Did a judge infringe upon the crude legal ideas of a 
certain bar reporter, the same missle spotted his ermine, (m) Did a 

Mr. Haskin did not confess he was a fool, but, like a sensible man, went on in his 
own course; "being one of the un terrified" Democracy. But in two months his 
private morals and public worth underwent a change, because H. G-. found him »up- 
portiiv) an H. G. policy. In the Tribune of March 13th, 1858, Horace Greeley thus 
writes: 

" We make room this morning for the recent speech of the Hon. John B. Haskin 
of this State, against the attempt of the President and the Southern members of 
Congress to force the Lecompton Constitution upon the people of Kansas. This 
speech was delivered in the House of Representatives on Wednesday last, and, 
according to the testimony of all beholders, was listened to with extraordinary 
attention. This was but natural. It is a bold and manly speech, such as many a 
Northern craven, who now truckles and yields in Congress, will hereafter wish he 
had made in this great historical crisis. Of course, when we say this, we do not 
mean to be understood as adopting and approving every word and sentiment which 
tills speech contains. There are ideas and expressions in it with which we never 
shall agree. Mr. Haskin has always been a Hard-Shell Democrat, and speaks as 
such. Would to God his words of wisdom and of warning might be heeded by the 
South, in whose behalf he has fought many a political battle, and to which he has 
given every honorable pledge of lideliiy ! It is indeed surprising, when such men 
as Haskin and Douglas, Walker, Stanton, and Wise rise in resistance to such a mea- 
sure as this Lecompton fraud, that other leaders of the Democratic party should 
still be so infatuated as to force it upon the country. Is theirs anything but the 
madness which precedes destruction?" 

The writer particularly remembered these two editorials, from their manufac- 
turing THREE ' Tom Finches' within the writer's notice. 

Note (k). The editorials on Chief Justice Taney, about the Dred Scott decision, 
will be so particularly remembered for their exceedingly graceful language (!) that 
quotations would be wearisome. 

Note [h. The same will be remembered of the articles upon Edwin Forrest. So 
late as December, 1860, his Bostmi engagement was referred to in a manner as 
peculiar as the early one. The editorial pen traveled to Boston after the oppor- 
tunity. 

Note (to). Here is a characteristic selection. Judge Daly had trodden on H. G's. 



19 



leading author refuse his homage to the household critic — " Ana- 
thema " was inscribed upon his volume on the H. G. shelf, and 

temperance corns. Judge Charles P. Daly, of the New York Common Pleas, had 
then been over fifteen years on the Bench. He is widely known as a philosophic 
student and writer, and as a jurist, on or off the Bench. ( Vide his preface to E. D. 
Smith's Keports, his article on Naturalization, in the Appleton Cyclopasdia, and his 
recent bold, manly, and logical letter to Senator Harris, on the privateersmen.) 
In private life he is even more esteemed than in public ; and yet, in the Tribune of 
May 28, 1858, appeared the following H. G. editorial, holding the Judge up to 
insult : 

" Judge Daly lately tried a case in our city, involving mainly this question—' Is 
lager beer an intoxicating liquor V — on tvhich point he gave a hazy^ and inconsequent 
charge, or opinion, savoring far more of lager than of common sense or logic. The con- 
clusion which he rather indicated than attained was, that lager is not intoxicating, 
which is about like asserting that small-pox is not a fatal disease. There is pro- 
bably not one in ten of the persons in Court, when this opinion was delivered, 
■whom a liberal supply of lager would not render stupidly, senselessly drunk ; and 
the fact that there were a few ' old soakers' introduced as witnesses, who swore 
that they had drunk gallons of it without losing the use of their limbs or their 
faculties, only proves that certain human constitutions are naturally tough, while 
others become indurated by constant exposure to injurious influences. Mithri- 
dates, it is said, from fear of poisons, accustomed himself to their use — at first, in 
minute quantities ; but these he increased, until he took, with little apparent harm, 
doses, that would have speedily killed persons uuhabituated to such potions. 
Cases akin to, though hardly so striking as this, abound ; and, if the Judge's rul- 
ing, wdth reference to lager, is sound, it would follow from his premises that no 
such thing as a poison is known." 

In the Tribune of April 23, 1858, appears another of these articles from the pen 
of H. G. Talk of the elective judiciary ruining the country, when the Bench, high 
and low, is continually depreciated by Horace Greeley ! 

' ' The Hon. Judge Thompson of our [one-horse] Marine Court, in ruling, last 
week, the case of Maria Jenkins against Thaddeus L. Lewis— being a suit of a col- 
ored woman against a conductor for thrusting her out of a car on the Sixth Avenue 
Eailroad — is reported to have affirmed these points : 

" ' That negroes do not possess the same rights and privileges as white men ; re- 
marking that the Dred Scott decision was not only sound law. and should be obey- 
ed by every good citizen of the community, but that it was founded on principles 
of justice, reason, and Cliristianity. That the plaintiff, being a negro, had no right 
to a seat in the car in question ; that it was the duty of the conductor to expel 
her, under the rules and regulations of the Company ; that the Company had the 
right to establish such rules and regulations ; that negroes might be permitted, 
but were not entitled to a seat in a public conveyance. That the only question for 
the jury to consider was whether the defendant used any more force than was ne- 
cessary to put the plaintiff off the cars.' 



20 



even his publishers maligned, (n) Did a statesman diflfer from 
H. G. policy — his years of scholarship and patriotism were placed 
at the Joe Miller mercy of the last smart young man from Bos- 
ton, (o) So that the Tribune readers often saw reflected in the 
newspaper, not plain facts and sound logic, but the idiosyncrasies, 
prejudices and likes of Horace Greeley and his peculiar portion of 
the newspaper staff. 

Suppose, my dear Hoxie, that every member of society afflicted 
with the disease of self-consciousness, had a newspaper at his hand 
— to think aloud in at all times of the day and night ; in moods 
bilious, phlegmatic, saturnine, sanguine ; before breakfast and after 
breakfast ; when domestic roads were rough or macadamized ; 
when hopes were high or low ; when selfishness flew easterly or 
diablerie puffed southerly, &c., &c. — in short, pouring the crudities 
of rapid thought into the columns of a newspaper a la Horace Gree- 
ley, and not first sifting them with reflective labor ? Why, there 
would be a confederation of Kilkenny-cat States, presided over by 
some disappointed philosopher I 

Next of the gossip disease. 

Horace Greeley is a victim to curiosity. His private sanctum 
yearly witnesses a constant procession of gossips or " needy knife- 

" "With all deference to the inscrutable wisdom of a judge — of the Marine Court, 
especially — putting our hand on our mouth and our mouth in the dust, we venture 
timidly to suggest that, assuming the fundamental positions, above laid down, to 
be true (as wlio shall dare to question such a decision from such a quarter ?) the 
Judge came short of his duty in condescending to listen to the suit of Maria Jen- 
kins at all. Was not that point expressly made in the Dred Scott case, that Dred, 
being a mere nigger, had no right to sue a man — of course, we mean a white man 
— and bring him into court at all ?" 

In Tribune, June 1, 1858, is the following : 

" The Court of Common Pleas has reversed two judgments against the city, 
granted in that one-horse institution known as the Marine Court. There have been 
dozens of just such judgments given in Ward Courts and other low places, which 
ought to be set right by some responsible legal tribunal." 

Note (w). Literary men and publishers can readily recall scores of instances. 

Note (o). The most striking instances will be the articles on Edward Everett, 
holding him up to ridicule in all possible ways, because he was a ' ' Union saver. ' ' 



21 



grinders," or an avalanche of hearsay communications — retailing 
rumors, impressions, scandals, opinions, guesses, &c., &c. Horace 
Greeley pours these into his alembic or worm-still or retort (or 
whatsoever you may choose to call it), and the next-morning readers 
have the benefit of the first-proof distillations. For, credulous him- 
self, he believes in them all, and drinks them smilingly. This is 
not wonderful, you may saj^^, since he so supremely believes in him- 
self. 

Necessarily there follow modifications, or amplifications, or cor- 
rections in after issues of the paper, as the new set of rumor-mon- 
gers or incensed friends rush into the line of the rapid procession 
toward the shrine of gossip, (p) So that an ingenious European 

Note (p). In the Tribune, May 8, 1858, appears the following (which may also be 
taken in connection with the references to tlie Bench, before given) : 

" It would seem, from tlie official acts of tlietwo ornaments of tlie Bencli, who 
preside over our local Criminal Court, Recorder Barnard and Judge Russell, that 
law is at the most only a matter of opinion, to be warped and twisted just as the 
humor of the Bench may happen to rule the hour. The Mayor, with praiseworthy 
care for the public welfare, has recently directed the arrest of certain gamblers ; 
hut in the beginning of the good work, he is met by the indecent interference of a 
night-wandering Police Justice. However, he succeeded in getting a few of the 
arrested parties before Eecorder Barnard, where a charge of gambling was made 
against one, at least, who is everywhere known to be the proprietor of a gambling- 
house. Ex-Eecorder Smitli, who, since retiring from the Bench, seems to be the 
standing counsel for every gambler who gets into difficulty, appeared on this occa- 
sion, and so managed the cross-examination, that Barnard discharged this man, and 
all others brought up on similar complaints. He also volunteered the opinion 
that these arrests were illegal ; to which the ex-Recorder assented, adding that, had 
the officers been shot while making these arrests, the homicides could not have 
been punished for killing them." 

This is a conspicuous editorial ! One week later, May 15, in small type, appears 
the following " modification" : 

" Upon more particular inquiry in regard to the recent foray upon gambling 
houses, we find that the primary and essential formality of a complaint, under 
oath, by two responsible citizens, had not been made against any one of the houses 
visited, nor had the next indispensable step — a written order from a Commissioner 
of Police — been observed. The officers seem to have gone to work on their own 
account, more with a view of frightening than of really arresting men suspected of 
gambling. Consequently, when called upon to make the required legal com- 
plaints, they had neither the data nor the disposition to proceed. In the alisence 
of warrants under the old statutes and of the required formalities under the Police 



22 



friend, after perusing (among- the curiosities of the Historical 
Library) some files of the Tribune, remarked : "A person should 
read it only every otiier day. Yet he must take care to start 
rightly. If he began on a thinking-aloud morning or a first-blush 
rumor day, and skipped the days of after thoughts, or modifications, 

act, the Recorder had no alternative but to discharge the parties unconditlonall3^ 
Having believed, from the tenor of the proceedings, that all due preliminaries had 
been observed, we could not imderstand this unexpected discharge ; but the facts 
above stated place the matter in a different light, and exonerate the Recorder from 
any responsibility for this one more of many failures in attempting to repress one 
of the worst vices of the city. ' ' 

Of the thousands who read and believed the primary reckless statement, how 
many dozens saw the ' ' modification' ' ? 

In the Tribune of May 24, 1858, is the following : 

" Archbishop Hughes exjilicitly and indignantly denies the story of a secret Roman 
Catholic organization for the propagation and defense of that Church, which we 
copied last week from The Albany Statesman. We have no doubt of the truth of this 
denial . We published The Statesman' s sto?-y as a part of the gossip of the day, believing that 
it would he refuted if, as seemed highly probable, it was a fabrication. And where an issue 
is made between an anonymous assailant and a well-known respondent, there should 
never be any hesitation as to crediting the man without a mask." 

Those who remember the atrocious libel on the venerable Prelate, which is thus 
flippantly referred to, will not need to " make a note on't." 

To show furthermore, that Horace Greeley does not spare sect, here is another 
extract : 

"We are reliably assured that the Rev. Dr. Adams, of our city, is now maturing, 
in concert with some other learned and influential divines, mainly connected ^vith 
the American Bible Society, plans for a revision of the Received Version which shall 
leave the words baptize, &c., as they are," &c. — Tribune, May 10, 1858. 

This was in a conspicuous editorial. In the Tribune of next day, in small type, 
fifth page, (no attention called to it !) appears the following letter from the clergy- 
man assailed : 

' ' To the Editor of the New York Tribune : 

" Sir : Judge of my astonishment on reading the following item of intelligence in 
your paper of this date : 

" ' We are reliably assured that the Rev. Dr. Adams, of our city, is now maturing, 
in concert with some other learned and influential divines, mainly connected with the 
American Bible Society, plans for a revision of the Received Version which shall 
leave the words baptize, &c., as they are (or, as the Baptists say, untranslated) — the 
Baptist version now in progress giving "immerse," " immersing," for " baptize," 



23 

or corrected rumors, he was naturally a bewildered reader. But if 
he reversed the arrangement, he became measurably contented with 
Tribune views — especially if he read another daily paper as an altera- 
tive:' 

The meddlesome disease leads Horace Greeley towards threats 
and dictations. He meddles, for example, with Federal, State and 
local legislation, as an individual and a partisan, (q) when the un- 

" baptizing," &c. Our informant may have blended, in some degree, his inferences 
with his facts ; but there can be little doubt, ' &c. 

' ' This is the first information I have ever received of this important fact. Your 
informant certainly has ' blended his inferences with his tacts,' and his facts with 
his imaginations. There is not a ' shadow of truth' in what is here affirmed in 
connection with my name. 

"The Eeceived Version of the Bible is good enough for me, and the following pas- 
sage in it needs no ' revision' : ' Thou shalt not bear false witness against tliy 
neighbor.' "William Adams. 

^' 3Iadison-square Church, May 10, 1858." 

Tlie last sentence is capital ! So much for the illustrations of the gossip disease. 

Note (5). Horace Greeley permits no one to advise with the Legislature or Con- 
gress unless through his paper. The most legitimate way of influencing a legisla- 
tive body is thus well stated in a speech of the Hon. Mr. Alvord, of the New York 
Assembly, Jani;ary 21, 1862 : 

"In conclusion, permit me to remind the House, that it is part of the history 
of this State, that before all the committees of this Legislature there have been 
found, from time to time, men who stand as high as any in tlie State, in cliaracter 
and position, and appearing as counsel, advocating the cause of those by whom 
they have been employed, and receiving large amounts in payment for their 
services." 

The writer has only room for three specimens of Horace Greeley's patent lobby 
articles. The italics tell their own story. The first and second are both from 
the Tribune of April 19, 1858 — editorial type. 

' ' Governor King has vetoed the bill authorizing the Harlem Railroad to run its cars 
by steam down to Thirty-second street (as at present), instead of using horse-power 
exclusively below Forty-second street, as is required by an ordinance of our Com- 
mon Council. WE are inclined to apjrrove this veto, although the end it subserves is a bad 
one. The distairce between the two points indicated is mainly a tunnel," &c., &c. 

' ' The Legislature has interpolated into the Annual Tax bill of our city, an item 
covering the payment of Mr. D. D. Conover's salary, and the salaries of his subor- 
dinates, as officers of the Street Dei^artment, during the pendency of the contest 



24 



thinking portion of the world deem him a public-spirited editor. 
When Horace Greeley is Speaker, Clerk, Chairman of Committee, 

lobby adviser, &c., &c., all legislation progresses swimmingly 

in his newspaper. But if he burns his fingers (as meddlesome 
school-boys often do), he thinks all around him have similar black- 
ened fingers. He perpetually " lobbies" with the outer world. In- 
deed, there is no greater lobbyer in the United States — although he 
is continually raising the hue and cry against others. A parlia- 
mentary lawyer in England or in this country who is employed to 
prepare or explain private bills to a Commons, Congressional, leg- 
islative or civic committee, must pack trunk, travel and lodge at 
hotels, to accomplish his employment. Horace Greeley is more for- 
tunate. Seated in his editorial chair, he summons pen, ink, paper, 
printer's devils, compositors, pressmen, news-boys and Federal 
mails to accomplish his lobbying. 

Is there a Minnesota land grant to be helped ; a railroad charter 
in Iowa to be furthered ; a Greeleyite Speaker to be chosen at 
Washington ; an office-holder to be badgered into bringing his ad- 
vertising patronage ('to help my paper') lest his fees suffer ; an 
"'anti-Greeleyite Clerk to be slaughtered at Albany ; a Boston Mayor 

between him and Charles Devlin — also of his legal expenses in contesting the claims 
of Devlin. If, as we understand, this item is simply permissory — that is, it simply 
enables our municipal authorities to pay Conover and his subordinates, if they see 
fit, without requiring them to do so — WE have no sort of objection. Mr. Conover and 
his associates have rendered the city a great service in exposing the wholesale 
villainies whereof the Street Department has been the arena, and we believe our 
taxpayers will gladly see them paid for this service. The work has been done— 
we believe well done — and the city has largely benefited by it : if so, the city 
should be willing to pay. But paying salaries to Mr. Conover and his subordinates, 
with fat fees to his lawyers — WE shall loant to think of this." 

This is from the Tribune of February 22d, 1858 : 

"The State of New York is blessed, by some inscrutable dispensation of Providence 
and the enlightened favor of the Irish groggeries of Buffalo, with a legislator 
named Laning, who, on Friday last, made a striking exhibition of his quality by 
moving in the Assembly the following preamble and resolution • (Here follows 
one about Kansas frauds, &c.) 

"We have hitherto asked no favors of this Assembly, nor even of the Rebublican 
minority therein ; but we now ask and insist that this Buffalo libcler of men, whose 
names he is not worthy to utter, be compelled to make the investigation he here 
pretends to desire. His preamble is a tissue of calumnies which he had no business 



25 



to be overawed ; a Philadelphia Judge to be intimidated ; a Balti- 
more jury to be influenced ; or a New York Judge to be interested 
in ' my friend's ' case ; or a pet scheme to be furthered at Trenton ; 
or a City Hall Councilman to be dragooned into voting a printing 
bill — then Horace Greeley's pen editorially will do the necessary 
lobbying ; and all the more effectually because it is the livery of 
the public-spirited Horace Greeley wherein the lobby-devil sub- 
serves the private end. (?*) 

to put forth, unless he really purposed to press the investigation they seem to con- 
template. As among those whom Ms accomplice of The Atlas declares to be spe- 
cially aimed at in his libel, we demand that the investigation be had, and that it be 
most thorough. We demand that all the facts be elicited, and that the Assembly 
record its deliberate judgment thereon." 

Note (r). If any reader doubts these things, let him watch Horace Greeley's 
editorials for a year to come. 

The veteran editor of the Albany Evening Journal (responding editorially, Sep- 
tember 21, 1861, to an editorial walk which Horace Greeley had recently taken in 
this livery) thus remarked : 

" It has been our duty and task, for nearly forty years, to raise money for elec- 
tions. During more than half that time we did so in consultation and co-opera- 
tion with Mr. Greeley. 

"But if we have sinned in this way, Mr. Greeley ought not to 'cast the 
first stone. ' He has not always been fastidious in the use of money at elec- 
tions, or in legislation. He knows how much it cost — and out of whose pockets 
the money came — to elect a Speaker in Congress ! He knows how he expected 
to be reimbursed. He knows for what purpose a $1,000 check was handed to 
him. And he knows — as we believe — that while in this latter particular he was 
blameless — how easy it is to mystify and malign — how swiftly falsehood travels, and 
how tardily truth follows." 

The largest private caucus of moneyed men the writer ever attended (and con- 
vened to raise money for election purposes), was addressed by Horace Greeley. So 
eloquently did he plead for money for Pennsylvania, that after supper five thousand 
dollars was raised. 

In this connection, if Horace Greeley wants to remember how he feels when 
charged, as he systematically and constantly charges public men, let him read his 
own editorial on the House Investigation Committee (Tariff Inquiry — Tribune, May 
26, 1858), in which he defends himself against the oaths of two witnesses, charging 
him with peccadillo. 

Here are instances of the recklessness of Horace Greeley toward private citi- 
zens : 



26 



When Horace Greeley emerged from the crisis of a brain fever 
in order to deny his complicity with the " On to Eichmond" (s) med- 

' ' The Courier and Enquirer thinks we speak too harshly of the eminent merchants 
and bankers who signed the call for the Lecompton Meeting at Tammany Hall. 
' We do not question their motives,' says the C. mid E. Nor do we, responds The 
Tribune. We do these gentlemen the justice to disbelieve them amateur lovers of 
villainy, upholding fraud and forgery from sheer love of those dubious operations. 
We are quite sure that if Messrs. Stewart Brown, Moses Taylor, Charles Aug. Davis, 
&c. , were not interested in Ocean Steamers, Ocean Telegraphs, &c. , for which they de- 
sire the continued patronage and bounty of the Government, they could never have 
been induced to sign this call. 

" With us, fraud is fraud, forgery is forgery, and the attempt to fasten upon an 
all but unanimously resisting people a frame of government and set of rulers no- 
toriously loathed by them, is a flagrant crime. So holding, we so act and speak, 
leaving others to do as they see lit." — Tribune, March 5, 1858. 

"This exposition makes it manifest, that the question of the African slave-trade 
has two sides to it at the South, and shows that its opening depends entirely upon 
which of the two great Southern interests dominates in the Federal Government. 
If Mr. Buchanan's Administration should approve the project, we have no doubt 
that Messrs. Henry Grinnell, Matthew Morgan, J. H. Brower, John A. Dix, John 
"Van Buren, Robt. J. Dillon, Moses Taylor, Watts Sherman, Charles A. Davis, Stew- 
art Brown, and thirty-three hundred others, woidd voluntarily come forward to call 
a meeting at Tammany, to strengthen the hands of the President in that virtuous 
undertaking. Why not ? The act would not be half so mean as the one they 
have just performed in this line, for it ivoidd be dignified by the selfish purpose of pro- 
moting their own interests, at a period of uncommon commercial dearth." — Tribune, 'Ma.xc\\ 
10, 1858. 

Note (s). Here is a fac simile of the startling editorial kept in the H. G. column for 
weeks; the one ever before Congressmen and politicians, when goaded themselves 
into goading Scott and Lincoln : 



THE NATION'S WAR-CRV. 

Forward, to Richmond I Forward to Richmond ! 
The Rebel Congress must not he allowed to meet 
there on the 20th July ! By that date the 

PLACE MUST BE HELD BY THE JSTaTIOXAL AkMY ! 



Let US appeal from Philip drunk to Philip sober. In his paper of June 11th, 
1858, he thus wrote regarding a probable war with England : 

' ' It is, perhaps, however, presuming a little too much on the disinterestedness, 
the purely public spirit, of our Congressional war-mongers, to imagine that the 
mere prospect of a dreadful scourge to the nation ; a shock to the foundations of 



27 



dling, I at first tliouglit it was an effort at moral courage and patriot- 
ism ; and so I said. But it has since become evident that it was 
the supreme self-conscious7iess which dictated the disclaimer ; and 
Horace Greeley's selfconsciousness-disease, and its concomitant 
symptoms of gossip and meddling, must be held accountable for the 
Manassas massacre by every widow and orphan of last July. I 
think, my dear Hoxie, you and I, under the same circumstances, 
would have had respective brain fevers — but perhaps we should not 
have recovered so readily. 

Is it not, therefore, evident that all the self-consciousness, growth 
of idiosyncrasy, dogmaticalness, gossipy irresolution of statement, 
meddlesome dealing with everything and everybody, will convert 
Horace G-reeley's paper into a blundering and unreliable affair ? Your 
Editor, all the civilized world over, has become a thinking machine 
for society. Readers take their " what's-o'-clock " of public fact and 
popular logicfrom him. And Horace Greeley's peculiar public (t) (di- 
minished one fifth by the Seward letter, another fifth by the Bull 
Run meddling, a third fifth by his recent covert sneers at that most 
loyal man, Abraham Lincoln — whom, by the way, he opposed for 
U. S. Senator, advocating Douglass) has come to discover that the 
Horace Greeley clock needs oiling and winding up too often, and 
goes too fast, for reliability, at a foreign and domestic crisis like 
the present, (u) 

society ; changes for the worse in the character of our Government, had as it is 
already ; interruption or overthrow of private happiness, and misery and wretched- 
ness in multiplied forms, would prove preponderant considerations with them 
when placed in the balance against the chance of political position for themselves. 
Let us, therefore, suggest to our aspirants for political eminence, that for ambitious 
civilians nothing can be more doubtful and hazardous than a war." 

Note (t) . The writer does not wish to be understood as asserting that the Tribune 
public is thus diminished. The writer knows nothing of the merits of the circulation 
question. Herein he is to speak, and does speak, of what he knows and reads about 
Horace Greeley. There is an obvious distinction between Horace Greeley's public and 
the Tribune public. Thousands who read the Tribune don't believe in Horace 
Greeley. If the paper were rid of him, it would be of more value to the stockholders, 
and if the whale had not thrown up Jonah, Jonah might have disemboweled the 
whale, for all his blubber and powers of spouting. 

Note (m). Horace Greeley editorially, January 9, 1859, thus wrote his own shame 
and fate : 



28 



And so it was, my dear Hoxie, because you crossed Horace 
Greeley's meddlesome path, and became the victim of his gossip- 
procession, and wounded his self-consciousness, that you were 
gazetted as " Poor Joe ;" and are added to the list in Horace Gree- 
ley's day-book of the debtors to be dunned whenever the wound 
gapes or rankles. 

The veracious historian must some day indict this Greeleyian 
self-consciousness for many offenses. For its blasphemies ; (v) for 

' ' Newspapers are (or ought to be) printed for the information and entertain- 
ment of the whole community ; but when they are made mere advocates of petty 
or even of ponderous private interests, the advertisers of personal schemes, and 
puffers of men, who, whether connected with them or not, have a large number of 
axes to grind, they must lose all independence, manliness, and, in fact, all sub- 
stantial patronage. Their insolvency must come in time. Should they have em- 
l^loyed upon them writers disposed to speak their minds, and indisposed to submit 
to dictation, they must lose those writers in time. The consequence must be shift- 
lessness, inequality of management, and frequent surrenders of the ghost. ' ' 

Note (v). Lest this should seem a harsh word, here is the concluding paragraph 
in the Tribune of Christmas Day, 1861, in an H. G. editorial, on Treasury frauds : 

"O for another Christ, with whip of (not very) small cords to scourge with 
Divine wrath the money-changers out of the Temple of Liberty, which they pro- 
fane and pollute !" 

To the clergymen, whom Horace Greeley boasts are his especial adulators, the 
writer commends the following collateral illustrations : 

From the Tribune of January 7, 1861. 

" DR. RAPHALL's bible. 

' ' The Kev. Dr. Raphall is a burning and a shining light in our New York 
Israel. As Senator "Wade said of his co-religionist, Judah P. Benjamin, he is ' an 
Israelite with Egyptian principles.' On the President's Fast-day, he preached a 
sermon in the Greene-street Synagogue, wherein he demonstrated, to his own 
satisfaction, that Human Slavery is sanctioned by Divine law. Now, in so far as 
the Rev. Dr. assumed to quote and to expound the law of Moses, we let him pass, 
and proceed to the other branch of the subject. We quote from a report of his 
discourse as foUows." 

From the Tribune, BLiy 5, 1858. 

' ' We note considerable surprise expressed in the columns of our distant cotem- 
poraries at the late vote of the School Officers of our Fourth Ward excluding the 
Bible from their Ward Schools. Our own notion is, that it was an act of justice to 
the Bible for which those who revere that book should be deeply grateful. About 
every fourth dwelling in the Fourth Ward is either a grog-shop, gaming-house or 



29 



its larcenies of reputation, grand and petit ; for its counterfeits of 
patriotism ; (w) for its forgeries on public virtue ; for its homicides 

brothel ; many of them are two of these * rolled into one,' and some are all three. At 
least half the voters of this Ward are residents of grog-shops, or brothels, or both ; 
and these ' institutions ' are rather lower, filthier, and more revolting than similar 
dens almost anywhere else. There are about 2,000 legal voters in the Fourth 
Ward, and they polled 2,637 votes at our last election, of which Fernando Wood 
had 2,112. Of course, the Ward Officers elected are all zealous Wood men. If tlie 
great majority of the people of the Fourth Ward saw fit to live with any sort of 
respect to the precepts of the Bible, it would be very well to keep the Sacred Vol- 
ume in their schools ; but, as the case is, they do well to kick it out. There is no 
other course among those which they are at all inclined to pursue which would do 
the Book so much credit. ' ' 

From the same, April 3, 1858. 
" The Legislature is worrying over a bill to restrict the present exemption (to the 
extent of $1,500) of a clei"gyman's property from taxation to such clergymen as 
are inactive clerical service. To which it is demurred that a worn-out, unemployed 
clergyman needs it more than one who has still a parish and a salary. Eitlier of 
these suggestions is well enough ; but better than either would be a bill abolishing 
all exemptions of clergymen's property from taxation. Such exemption is wi-ong 
in principle and unfair in practice. Many a clergyman whose income is $1,500 or 
over per annum now goes tax-free, while his farming, blacksmithing, shoemaking 
neighbors, whose income is not nearly so liberal, have to pay taxes on whatever 
property they may have, like anybody else. So long as our Constitution absurdly 
excluded clergymen from civil office, there was some plausibility in exempting 
these political eunuchs from taxation ; but that is happily dissipated by our Re- 
formed Constitution. Clergymen may now be elected to any office, as is right ; 
now let them pay taxes just like other people." 

Note {iv.) "Counterfeits of patriotism." It is generally agreed that if at the 

time (fall of Fort Sumter) when the two sections faced each other, there had not 
been already engendered such bitter personal feelings as had been for many years 
sedulously aroused by the Neiv Orleans Delta or Charleston 3Iercury, on the part 
of the South, and by Horace Greeley's editorials in the North toward the South, a 
vast deal of the acerbity displayed from Norfolk to Galveston would not have 
existed. Whether Horace Greeley was reckless or designing in aiding this acer- 
bity, history will unfold. Davis, Benjamin & Co. were conservative at times — so 
was Horace Greeley. In the Neio York Tribune of May 25, 1860, he wrote thus : 

"To my mind, it was the imperative duty of the Convention to regard the 
triumph of the cause first, and the gratification of personal feelings or aspira- 
tions a long way afterward. I wished first of all to succeed ; next, to strengthen and 
establish our struggling brethren in the border Slave States. Close as many suppose the 
contest is destined to be, and doubtful as they may deem its issue, I would now 



30 

on Manassas plains ; for its treason in the early articles justifying 

gladly give away the ten sure votes of Rhode Island and Connecticut to gain the 
nine votes of Missouri. ' ' 

This was, on its face, manly talk. If repeated during February, 1861, it would 
have proved valuable. There was need of such talk at this last date. Instead of 
which, his editorials were full of these expressions respecting the Peace Congress — 
"The Old Gentlemen's Conference" — "The Volunteer Convention, irreverently 
styled the One-horse Congress" (February 26, 1861). It was of great importance 
to establish our struggling brethren in the border Slave States — then. But Horace 
Greeley had been found in times of such need — during the Kansas-Nebraska- 
Lecompton debate — feeding the angry flames of the South, instead of quenching 
them. He took every pains to foster the jealousy with which Southerners were 
taught by their designing disunionists to regard matters literary, theological, and 
political at the North, wherein slavery was mentioued. True, the Eepublican party 
denounced the institution, and exposed its enormities, but mily to illustrate the 
inexpediency of converting it from a local into a national institution. The first 
Eepublican Convention was presided over by a slaveholder. Nevertheless, in every 
way Horace Greeley abused the Southern States, people, and peculiarities ; while 
at the same time he was compelled to admit the right of the South to govern their 
local institutions in its own way. It was as unmanly so to do, and as injurious to 
the argument, as it would be for a debater to attack the objectionable hat or tlie 
eccentric coat, or the affected drawl, or the taste of keeping goats in a bath-tub, 
possessed by his opponent. 

From a Greeley editorial of June 11, 1858, is extracted the following — a very 
miW sample, too : 

"If the statements of The Richmond Whig are to be taken as authority — and 
surely at this point at least that journal may be supposed to be well informed — the 
white race in that State has sunk to a condition of pitiable imbecility. The whites, 
according to The Whig, are utterly dependent on the negroes. Without, at least, 
one negro, no white man is capable of filling any position of usefulness or respec- 
tability. Tliis serves to account for the immense number of Virginia loafers ivith ichich 
Washington cdways swarms, and the loio level to which, in point both of intelligence and in- 
dustry, the Ancient Dominion has simk. ' ' 

Such an article, copied into every Virginia local paper— and readers assured that 
it came from the leading Republican gazette at the North, and from New York 
City — would singly exasperate the people of the ' ' Ancient Dominion. ' ' But this 
mode of exasperation, persistently followed down to the very fall of Sumter, must 
have been powerful in effect. Every trivial occasion was embraced to aid the 
Southern exasperation. A large number of Southern divines and laymen are at- 
tending the anniversaries of May, 1858 — these gentlemen are representative men. 
At a purely business meeting, a Greeleyian reporter takes down everything calcu- 
lated to annoy them ; and the proceedings headed in this sensation style : 



31 

the right of Secession ; (x) for its moral briberies with editorial in- 
Fac-simile heading, Tribune, May 13, 1858 : 



TJIU ANNIVERSARIES, 
THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 



AN EXCITING DISCUSSION. 



The Slaveholders Triumphant. 

•♦• 

Wliilst tlie Peace Congress was in session and many patriots in tlie regular Con- 
gress ' ' strengthening and establishing struggling brethren in the border Slave 
States," Horace Greeley is clinging to the Chicago Platform ! He writes thus on 
Washington's birthday, 1861 : 

" In view of all these considerations, we beseech our friends everywhere to 
stand firm, to adhere to the Chicago Platform, and to hold those who demand of us a 
surrender of our cherished principles as our deadliest enemies. If this Govern- 
ment is to be dissolved, if anarchy and confusion are to follow, and if the Republi- 
can party, which has achieved so signal a victory for Humanity and Freedom, is to 
be consigned to oblivion, let it not be said of us that we tvere afraid to place ourselves 
upon the rock of truth, or that we confided too sparingly to the patriotism and intelli- 
gence of the people." 

President Lincoln understood the crisis, when about this time he related his 
cliaracteristic anecdote of his being like the man who fell heir to an immense man- 
sion, certain parts of which were secretly mined with gunpowder, for which search 
must be made with candle-light. 

Thirteen days later than the last editorial, Mr. Seward showed that he also xm- 
derstood the crisis. In a Horace Greeley editorial, March 7, 1861, is the following — 
intended, perhaps, for sarcasm ; but quoted, now nearly a year afterward, is sar- 
castic ; not, however, on Mr. Seward ! 

' ' The citizens of Illinois now in Washington called on Mr. Seward after the in- 
auguration, and in response to their congratulations, he said : ' Gentlemen — If you 
want to save this Administration, and have it successful and profitable to the 
country, I implore you to remember that the battle for Freedom has been fought 
and won. Henceforth forget that Freedom ever was in danger, and exert your 
best influence now to save the Union. Let it not be said that the Kepul)lican 
party of the United States won its first, last, and only victory, over the dissolu- 
tion of the Union.' One of his visitors remarked : ' Governor, I want the in- 
tegrity of the Republican party maintained.' Mr. Seward responded: 'Remem- 
ber, that the way to mamtain the integrity of the Republican party is to maintain 



32 

fluence or silence ; for its editorial tampering' with bench and jury; 

the Union. Eemember that the point at which the enemy strikes is always the 
point which you should defend.' Mr. Lovejoy interposed and added : ' And 
remember that the Union is worth nothing except so long as there is Freedom in 
it.' To this Mr. Seward replied : ' Freedom is always in the Union.' " 

Note (x). No one now doubts that for many years certain of the Southern politi- 
ticians meditated a crippling of Army and Navy — looking toward two confedera- 
cies. Whether Horace Greeley did or did not must be left to history. The writer 
now presents the public with many editorials they may have forgotten. 

The following is from an H. G. editorial on reforms in Congress, June 11, 1858 : 
" Tlie Army. — Of all solecisms, a Standing Army in a Kepublic of the XlXth 
Century is the most indefensible. The abuse is so monstrous that it is difficult to 
bring arguments against it, from the incredibility of supposing it seriously defended 
by any save those who profit by it. From the coarse knaveries whereby young 
simpletons and older bacchanals are seduced to enlist, through the smarter rascali- 
ties of the sutler's craft, to the enormous and absurd squanderings of the trans- 
portation service, all is ineffably disgusting. We have sent regiment after regi- 
ment to the Pacific coast at a cost of not less than $1,000 per man before they are 
in position for actual service, when a more effective force could have been mustered 
right there, fully equipped and eager for action, at a cost of less than $100 per man. 
Wretched affair as the Mexican War was, it did teach us that American volunteers, 
decently led, are a full match for any regulars that can be got up on this Continent. 
When men enough can be found to volunteer for such a war, ready to fight in such 
a cause twelve or fifteen hundred miles from home, and do actually fight well 
there, under such Generals as Pierce and Pillow, it ought to be accounted high trea- 
son even to suggest the maintenance of a regular army thereafter. Leave West 
Point, General Scott, two Major-Generals, four Brigadiers and an effective Staff, with at 
most two thousand crippled or invalid veterans to take care of fortresses, and encourage the 
formation of efficient volunteer companies, regiments and brigades of Militia by 
liberal bounties to the best organized and drilled, and the deposit of a good musket or 
rifle in every dwelling whose master ivill give security for its safe-keeping and return when 
required, and we have no more need of a Standing Army than of an order of nobili- 
ty. The saving by the utter disbandment and disuse of such an Army, regarded 
as a movable force, and the substitution therefor of capable and prudent Wardens 
of the frontiers, with the rank of Colonels and power to call out a limited number 
of volunteers for a month's service whenever required — said month to be extended 
to three at the discretion of the General commanding on that whole frontier — 
would save at least Five Millions per annum immediately, and ultimately not less 
than Ten Millions. And this, though it may be ever so obstinately resisted, will 
yet be done. 

" The Navy. — To sell out the Navy Yards to the highest bidder, saving only the best one, if 
any — to burn or lay up under cover all our old and nearly all our large sailing vessels — to 



33 



stop the appointment of any more captains, lieutenants, or midshipmen, wliile 
there shall be already officers of these grades respectively 'waiting orders' — that 
is, doing nothing — and to transform our National vessels propelled by steam into 
Mail Packets, running on the more or the less important routes, according to their 
value and swiftness, allowing them to carry passengers and freight within their 
capacity, as well as mails— these are the outlines of a system of naval reform 
which would save Five Millions per annum to the Treasury, and render the Navy 
far more useful than it is. We may enlarge on this head at another time. ' ' 

Whilst every loyal journal at the North (Jan., 1861) was preparing the public 
mind, and especially the commercial world, for the "impending crisis," Horace 
Greeley was painting the benefits (!) of secession thus [Tribune, January 26, 1861) : 

" It seems impossible for the Slaveholding States to do, or refuse to do, any- 
thing that will not redound to the advantage of the Free States. 

"As we have shown already, the Secession movement is bringing business and 
prosperity to the North, which will increase daily until the South shall be of no 
account whatever, except as a cotton-field. Its agricultural production ^vill be the 
same as now, but even its mechanic industry, in its present limited forms, will de- 
sert it, and its commerce will cease to exist. Those important branches of its pros- 
perity will be wholly lopped off, and their sap and vigor transferred to stimulate 
Northern growth. 

' ' Already our Northern cities, and New York in particular, are feeling a quick- 
ening of their trading pulses from the very partial interruption of business at the 
Southern seaports. And this is but the beginning. The ports of Mobile, and 
Savannah, and New Orleans, are still full of shipping, bearing away the products 
of the Southern country and of the Mississippi Valley. But when they shall have 
departed — that will be the end of commerce at those ports. There cannot be 
less than four hundred ships now loading in the various liarbors of the South. 

' ' When this whole business shall have been transferred to Northern channels by 
the shutting of Southern ports, and thrown upon Northern cities, it is impossible 
to overestimate the amount of profit that will be reaped by our commercial and 
financial circles. The present banking capital of this city will be wholly inade- 
quate to the transaction of the new business they will have to do. Our wharves 
and warehouses will be overloaded with Southern products. Our docks will be 
choked with foreign and domestic shipping. Our railroads will, with their present 
resources and accommodations, struggle in vain to keep up with their fast-accruing 
burdens of transportation. 

"Our steamers and sailing craft, luggers and towboats, our mechanics and labor- 
ing men in anyway connected, directly or iudirectlj^, with commercial and shipping 
circles, will know an activity of employment never before experienced. Every 
other branch of traffic will feel a corresponding impulse, in a greater or less 
degree. 

" Such is sure to be the commercial effects of Secession upon this city, and like 
results will be experienced in every other great commercial emporium of the Free 
States, and throughout the maritime parts of the country." 
3 



34 



The writer here inserts (without comment) the following H. G. editorials : 
' From the Tribune, Dec. 17, 1860. 

"the right of secession. 

"The Albany Evening Journal courteously controverts our views on the subject of 
Secession. Here is the gist of its argument : 

" ' " Seven or eight States" have "pretty unanimously made up their minds " to 
leave the Union. Mr. Buchanan, in reply, says that "ours is a Government of 
popular opinion," and hence, if States rebel, there is no power residing either with 
the Executive or in Congress, to resist or punish. Why, then, is not this the end 
of the controversy ? Those ' ' seven or eight States ' ' are going out. The Govern- 
ment remonstrates, but acquiesces. And The Tribune regards it "umoise to un- 
dertake to resist such Secession by Federal force." 

" ' If an individual, or "a single State," commits treason, the same act in two or 
more individuals or two or more States is alilie treasonable. And how is treason 
against the Federal Government to be resisted, except by " Federal force " ? 

' ' ' Precisely the same question was involved in the South Carolina Secession of 
1833. But neither President Jackson, nor Congress, nor the people took this view 
of it. The President issued a Proclamation declaring Secession treason. Congress 
passed a Force Law ; and South Carolina, instead of ' ' madly shooting from its 
sphere," returned, if not to her senses, back into line.' 

" Does the Journal mean to say that if all the States and their people should be- 
come tired of the Union, it would be treason on their part to seek its dissolution ? 

' ' We have repeatedly asked those who dissent from our view of this matter to tell 
us frankly whether they do or do not assent to Mr. Jefferson's statement in the De- 
claration of Independence that governments 'derive thciY just powers from the consent 
of the governed ; and that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of 
these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new govern- 
ment,' &c., &c. We do heartily accept this doctrine, believing it intrinsically 
sound, beneficent, and one that, universally accepted, is calculated to prevent the 
shedding of seas of human blood. AND IF IT JUSTIFED THE SECESSION 
FROM THE BRITISH EMPIRE OF THREE MILLIONS OF COLONISTS IN 1776, 
WE DO NOT SEE WHY IT WOULD NOT JUSTIFY THE SECESSION OF 
FIVE MILLIONS OF SOUTHRONS FROM THE FEDERAL UNION IN 1861. 
If we are mistaken on this point, why does not some one attempt to show wherein 
and why ? For our own part, while we deny the right of slaveholders to hold 
slaves against the will of the latter, WE CANNOT SEE HOW TWENTY MIL- 
LIONS OF PEOPLE CAN RIGHTFULLY HOLD TEN, OR EVEN FIVE, IN A 
DETESTED UNION WITH THEM, BY MILITARY FORCE. 

" Of course, we understand that the principle of Jefferson, like any other broad 
generalization, may be pushed to extreme and baleful consequences. We can see 
why Governor's Island should not be at liberty to secede from the State and Nation 
and allow herself to be covered with French and Biitish batteries commanding and 
threatening our city. There is hardly a great principle which may not he thus 
' nm into the ground.' But if seven or eight contiguous States shall present 



85 



themselves authentically at Washington, saying, ' We hate the Federal Union ; 
we have withdrawn fiom it; we give you the choice between acquiescing in our 
secession and arranging amicably all incidental questions on the one hand, and 
attempting to subdue us on the other '—we could not stand up for coercion, for 
subjugation, for we do not think it would be just. We hold the right of Self- 
Government sacred, even when invoked in behalf of those who deny it to others. 
So much for the question of Principle. 

' ' Now as to the matter of Policy : 

' ' South Carolina will certainly secede. Several other Cotton States will probably 
follow her example. The Border States are evidently reluctant to do likewise. 
South Carolina has grossly insulted them by her dictatorial, reckless course. What 
she expects and desires is a clash of arms with the Federal Government, which will 
at once commend her to the sympathy and co-operation of every slave State, and to 
the sympathy (at least) of the pro-slavery minority in the free States. It is not 
difficult to see that this would speedily worli a political revolution, which would 
restore to slavery all, and more than all, it has lost by the canvass of 1860. We 
want to obviate this. We would expose the seceders to odium as disunionists, not 
commend them to pity as the gallant though mistaken upholders of the rights of 
their section in an unequal military conflict. 

" We fully realize that the dilemma of the incoming Administration will be a 
critical one. It must endeavor to uphold and enforce the laws, as well against re- 
bellious slaveholders as fugitive slaves. The new President must fulfill the obli- 
gations assumed in his inauguration oath, no matter how shamefully his jjredecessor 
may have defied them. We fear that Southern madness may precipitate a bloody 
collision that all must deplore. But if ever ' seven or eight States ' send agents to Wash- 
ington to say, ^Weioant to get out of the Union,' we shall feel constrained hy our devotion 
to Human Liberty to say. Let them go ! And we do not see how we could take the 
other side without coming in direct conflict with those Eights of Man which we hold 
paramount to all political arrangements, however convenient and advantageous." 

From the Tribune, 2Uh December, 1800. 

' ' Most certainly we believe that governments are made for peoples, not peoples 
for governments— that the latter 'dei-ive their just power from the consent of the 
governed ;' and whenever a portion of this Union, large enough to form an inde- 
pendent, self-subsisting nation, shall see fit to say, authentically, to the residue, 
' We want to get away from you,' we shall say — and we trust self-respect, if not 
regard for the principle of self-government, will constrain the residue of the Ameri- 
can people to say — 'Go !' We never yet had so poor an opinion of ourselves, or 
our neighbors, as to wish to hold others in a hated connection Ai^ith us. But the 
dissolution of a government cannot be effected in the time required for knocking 
down a house of cards. Let the cotton States, or any six or more States, say, une- 
quivocally, ' We want to get out of the Union,' and propose to effect their end 
peaceably and inoffensively, and we will do our best to help them out — not that we 
want them to go, but that we loathe the idea of compelling them to stay. All we 
ask is, that they exercise a reasonable patience, so as to give time for effecting their 
end without bloodshed. Thev must know, as well as we do, that no President can 



36 



recognize a mere State ordinance of secession, nor neglect to enforce the laws of 
the United States throughout their whole geographical extent. It takes two to 
make a bargain, whetlier of admission or secession ; hut with reasonable forbear- 
ance all may be brought about. ' ' 

The same views (see motto on title-page) were expres.=;ed on the eve of the In- 
auguration . 

The following two editorials appeared on the same date : one, in leaded type, 
conveying watchword to co-conspirators in Washington ; the other, to the men at 
Charleston — the telegraph being then in perfect operation : 

From Tribune of January 8, 1861. 

"beware ! 

' ' Some weeks ago we warned the Republicans of the Free States that a measure 
was being concocted at Washington, that would yield up the vital doctrine for which 
they struggled in the recent Presidential contest, and we urged them to let their 
opinions upon that subject be known to their Senators and Ecpresentatives without 
delay. We have reason to know that that appeal was not made in vain. We now 
say to the tried and true friends of our cause throughout the coimtry, that the ad- 
vocates of what is called Concession and Compromise are again at work, and with 
more vigor than before, to induce the Republicans in Congress to support some 
policy that shall humble the North and make shipwreck of our party and its creed. 
We renewedly call upon them to promptly make their opinions and wishes upon 
this question known at Washington. To tliis end, let them speak through their 
local journals, and by letters and other means of communication, so that their 
Senators and Ecpresentatives may have a clear knowledge of the tone of public sen- 
timent at home. Let the friends of Free Labor and Free Government move im- 
mediately ! The crisis impends. There is no time for delay." 

"aid for Anderson! 

" About the time that this journal reaches our readers this morning, the gallant 
Anderson and his devoted band, who have so sturdily upheld the flag of their coun- 
try within the walls of Fort Sumter, will find that in the hour of their peril their 
country has not deserted them. AVith the gray dawn of the day, wind and weather 
favoring, the brave fellows at the fort will see steaming toward them the Star of 
the West, under command of Capt. McGowan, with the stars and stripes at her peak, 
bearing aid and succor, men and munitions to the beleaguered fortress. It is now 
very generally understood that the hurried and SECRET mission on which the 
steamer left here on Saturday evening was, to transport a body of United States troops 
from Governor's Island to Fort Sumter. The men were quietly put on board from 
a steamtug in the lower bay, under cover of the night, and are supposed to have 
gone down under command of Col. Tliomas, G-en. Scott's executive officer. The 
Star of the West also took a large quantity of stores and fuel, of which I\Iajor 
Anderson is said to stand in need." 



37 



for malicious mischief generally, and as approximating- to the com- 
mon scold at common law. (y) 

But you, my dear Hoxie, in a serene old age, will become less a 
"Poor Joe" than shall your false friend of twenty years' standing. 
For you, as well as others causelessly maligned by this diseased 
self-consciousness, will become one of the class who possess the 
honor versified by Bulwer Lytton in his "New Timon :" 

" Honor to him, who, self-complete and brave 
In scorn, can carve his pathway to the grave ; 
And, heeding naught of what men think or say, 
Make his owii heart his world iiiwn the way." 

Most faithfully, my dear Hoxie, 

Your obliged friend, 

A. OAKEY HALL. 

New York City, Dec. 13, 186L(z) 

Note (y). Under the head of "Nuisance," Sir William Blackstone thus com- 
ments (4B1. Com., 168) : 

' ' Eaves-droppers, or such as listen under walls or windows, or the eaves of a 
house, to hearken after discourse and thereupon to frame slanderous and mis- 
chievous tales, are a common nuisance and presentable at the Court Leet. Lastly, 
a common scold (commimis rixatrix — for our law Latin confines it to the feminine 
gender) is a public nuisance to her neighborhood. For which offense she may be 
indicted, and, if convicted, shall be sentenced to be placed in a certain engine of cor- 
rection, called the trebucket castigatory, or cucking stool, which in tiie Saxon lan- 
guage is said to signify the scolding stool ; though now it is frequently corrupted 
into ducking stool, because the residue of the judgment is, that when she is placed 
therein she shall be plunged in the water for her punishment." 

Note (z). Lest it should be charged that the few extracts from Horace Greeley's 
editorials, herein contained, are unfairly selected from a twenty years' range of his 
pen, when many things may be barred by a statute of limitations every public 
man may claim benefit of, it is proper to add, that with the exception of the seces- 
sion articles, and one or two later, the bulk of the extracts or proofs are from a 
HALF-yea?- file of his paper dnring the Lecompton fight (1858), when H. G. was par- 
ticularly ' on tlije rampage' — and the;/ are set up from the Tribune type ! Did the writer 
possess time and control space enough, he could accumulate proof that would build 
a logical pyramid. 

[While these sheets are going through the press, and on the very same day when 
Senator Henry S. Lane electrified the Senate galleries by declaring he would sustain 
the war by taxing the last dollar — sustain it until every individual was bankrupt, 



3S 



and he liimself laid in a paiiper's grave by pauper hands— Horace Greeley publishes 
his Almanac, placing the Rebel Congress side by side with the Union Congress in 
lists of members ! ! ] 

Senator Garrett Davis, of Kentucky, in his speech, duly reported in Horace 
Greeley's paper, January 26th, 1862, thus hit a nail very squarely upon its head : 

"These fanatics, these political and social demons, come here, breathing pesti- 
lence from Pandemonium, trying to destroy this Union, so as to secure over its 
broken fragments the emancipation of slavery. They oppose Mr. Lincoln, as honest 
and pure a man as ever lived, because he stands by the Constitution, and is opposed 
to interfering with slavery. The utterances they have dared to put forth in this 
city have desecrated the Smithsonian Institute. If the secessionists had dared to 
give cxiKession to the same utterances, they would have been sent, and properly 
sent, to Fort Lafayette or Fort Warren. What will you do with these monsters? 
I will tell you what I would do with them, and with that horrible monster Greeley, 
as they come sneaking aroimd here, like hungry wolves, after the destruction of 
slavery. If I had the power, I would take them and the worst seceshers and hang 
them in pairs. (Laiighter.) I wish to God I could inflict that punishment upon 
them. It would be just. They are the disunionists. They are the madmen, who 
are willing to call up all the passion of the infernal regions, and all the horrors of 
a servile war. This they would carry out over the disjected fragments of a broken 
Constitution to obtain their unholy purposes." 



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